Evonik targets €1.5bn sales boost with sustainable research strategy

GERMAN speciality chemicals firm Evonik expects to generate an additional €1.5bn (US$1.7bn) in sales by 2032 with the launch of three research areas focused on sustainability.

The trio of “innovation growth areas” are advanced precision bio-based cosmetic and hygiene solutions, energy efficiency via electrodialysis, and circularity in recycling materials, including tyres.

Evonik’s financial report for 2023 recorded the company’s overall sales at €15.3bn, 17% down on 2022. The drop resulted in a company reorganisation programme aimed at saving around €400m which included 2,000 global job cuts, 1,500 of which were in Germany.

Harald Schwager, deputy chairman of Evonik’s executive board, attributed the losses to the “turbulence of recent years,” citing the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and their effect on global chemical and energy supply chains.

Even through financial instability, Evonik’s research and development expenses have remained consistent at €443m. The company says that further investment into research is fundamental to its innovation and sustainability goals.

The new research fields

The three new research areas relate specifically to sustainability, both for customers and within the company’s own processes.

In-house, the company expects to become more cost- and resource-efficient through scaling up electrodialysis and reducing the use of raw materials.

One example is caustic soda, which is used in water treatment and cleaning products. Evonik have developed a process using electrodialysis which can separate caustic soda from sodium sulfate without adding further alkaline or acid solutions , saving energy.

Evonik says the process could be used to aid renewable technologies, including using electrodialysis to recover ammonia and sulfuric acid from ammonium sulfate. Ammonium sulfate is a byproduct of isophorone diamine, a compound used in wind turbines to strengthen the blades.

In the cosmetic research field, Evonik’s is trialling a method that can test the “microbiome-friendliness” of cosmetic products on skin.

Skin microbiome comprises bacteria found on layers of the skin, with friendliness being measured by how disruptive products can be.

Evonik is working to establish the microbiome-friendliness of its portfolio of active ingredients, tapping into the global US$460m cosmetic and care product retail market.

The company’s research field in the circular economy “combines all Evonik’s research projects” and is more concerned with helping customers implement circular process, including making high-quality recycled rubber for tyres.

New tyres are made by vulcanising raw rubber, sulfur, and around 5% recycled end-of-life tyres. Recycled rubber has already been vulcanised, making it weaker than raw rubber and therefore not as safe.

Evonik’s team has succeeded in reversing the vulcanisation of rubber by adding a formulation of vinyl silanes. This solution breaks down the sulfur bridges in the rubber while retaining the long hydrocarbons in the structure.

Evonik expects the process to produce a quality of recycled rubber that could provide 20% of new tyre blends.

Trialled and tested

Evonik’s previous growth fields focused on solutions in health cosmetics and membranes, with a major research project into the transportation of the active ingredient in lipid nanoparticles for mRNA-based vaccines. These fields generated more than €500m in additional sales for the company in 2021.

A spokesperson for Evonik said: “We have targeted an additional €1bn in sales by 2025 for our six existing innovation growth fields. In 2023, we had already achieved €650m of this target. In view of the turbulent past few years, this is a strong result on which we will build.”

Ralph Marquardt, Evonik’s chief innovation officer, added: “Research and development already make an overriding contribution to our growth. This trend will continue with these new growth areas.”